Sideways Steps
by caffinate-me
Summary: A Back to Where We Have Never Been companion piece. Series of one-shots. on going.
1. Laser Tag

Sideways Steps

A 'Back to Where We Have Never Been' Companion Piece

A series of one-shots.

Happy Birthday AC. This is for you. Thank you for being the best Fic 'pimp' and helping to get Back to Where off the ground.

* * *

1. Laser Tag (expanded from chapter 9 of Back to Where)

Kate peered curiously over his shoulder and into the closet as something in the corner caught her attention.

"What's that?" She asked as she pointed past him.

Castle looked back at her, over his shoulder, shock etched on his features. "You don't know what that is?"

Kate shook her head slowly. "No, should I?"

Castle reached into the closet and pulled out two vests and two large plastic guns. "This, my dear Beckett, is the making of the best afternoon ever: Top of the Line Laser Tag. You wanna play?"

Kate leveled him with a look. "Castle, I'm thirty-one, I'm way too old to be playing laser tag."

"Nonsense. Come on, Becks, you know you want to."

Kate shook her head again and took a step back, biting her lower lip. "Don't call me Becks."

"I know that look, Kate, you want to but you don't think you should. Come on, Beckett. Live a little. You just came here after joy riding on your motorcycle. What's wrong, afraid you're gonna lose?" Castle challenged, matching her step by step as she backed into the living room.

Kate let out a soft growl from the back of her throat. He just had to go and challenge her.

"Fine," she snapped, reaching out to grab one of the vests. "But loser has to buy the winner lunch."

"Deal," he smiled down at her.

"Deal."

* * *

Kate was strapping the vest to her body, securing it around her middle, the gun dangling at her side, when the apartment plunged into total darkness, only the sound of a laser gun powering up behind her, warning her that she needed to move.

Now.

Her heart was pounding as she dove behind the couch in a desperate attempt for cover. She had never shot a gun before, laser or otherwise. How was this going to work? Just point and shoot? Should she take the time to aim properly or should she just spray out an array of laser beams and hope for the best? Should she stay hidden or should she move?

A floorboard creaked to her left and her head whipped around. Without thinking she lifted up and pulled the trigger. Her shot went wide but Castle was forced to dive for cover giving Kate enough time to push off of the ground and bolt for the office, as she let out a high pitched shriek turned laugh.

This was… She couldn't help but smile as she gasped for breath, crouched behind Castle's desk, her flashing vest hidden for the moment. This was _fun._

She was having fun.

* * *

Castle pressed his back against the wall as he prepared himself to round the corner into his office. She was cornered in there. There was only one door, unless she went into the bedroom and then she would still be trapped. In his bedroom. Castle gulped. Nope, he was not allowed to think like that about Kate… and him… and his bed. Her hands working up under his shirt as he kissed her neck, his lips moving lower and lower until…

He could feel the flush creep up his neck as a few beads of sweat formed on his brow. He brought up a hand to swipe at them.

_No._

She was engaged. He was not allowed to think like that.

_Focus._

He had to focus on the game. He was not going to lose at his own game in his own home. There was a shuffle from inside the office followed by a whispered curse.

Castle smirked. She knew she was trapped.

"You can surrender now, Kate, save yourself the humiliation of defeat," Castle called laughing at the growl that answered him.

"Surrender is worse than defeat. Never give up, never surrender!"

"Galaxy Quest? Really, Professor Beckett? I would expect something more profound from you."

«Как это для глубоких?» Kate growled in response as she sped past him out the door and vaulted over the couch falling into a crouch behind it before Castle even recovered his senses, his mouth gaping open.

"Was that Russian? Did you just curse at me in _Russian_?"

"Yes!" Kate called back over the couch.

"That's hot!" Castle called back, quickly ducking as Kate popped back up to shoot at him again.

He laughed as he ran across the living room, taking cover behind the piano.

"You're lucky, I'm a bad shot," Kate huffed. "Or else you would be dead by now."

* * *

"Don't worry, Ashley," Alexis placated as the pair made their way down the hall from the elevator to the front door of the loft. "My father promised he would be on his best behavior. Plus, this time he is going to be cooking and not my gram. Everything should be just fine."

Ashley nodded his head reluctantly. "You sure they won't mind us dropping by like this? I mean, I'm sure Professor Beckett has better things to do than to have meeting with soon-to-be students."

Alexis shrugged her shoulders. "She's pretty cool. Plus, you aren't here as an incoming freshman, you are here as my boyfriend and she is a friend of my dad. Now…"

Alexis's sentence died on her lips, her key paused in the lock as she heard a shriek followed by a crash come from the other side of the door.

"What the…" she started as she scrambled to open the door. The two stumbled into the dimly lit apartment to see the top of her father's head poking out from behind the couch and Kate running towards the kitchen, spinning herself around the island. A lamp was on the floor, shattered into a dozen pieces.

"Dad? What's going on?"

Castle stood up, grinning widely at his daughter. His vest glowed and died as Kate took the opportunity to hit him with a kill shot.

"Ha! You owe me lunch." She yelled victoriously before turning to look at the two teenagers. "Hi Alexis. You must be Ashley."

Alexis reached back to hit the light switch as Ashley looked between the adults in unmasked shock.

"Um, hi, Professor Beckett?" Ashley stuttered out as she made her way and met him with an outstretched hand. "It's nice to meet you."

Kate smiled back at him, her vest glowing and blinking, gun hanging at her side in one hand. Castle grumbled about her cheating as he came up behind her.

"Hey, sweetie," he said, turning towards his daughter. "We're headed out to lunch. You two want to come?"

Alexis looked back at him, her mouth opening and closing a couple of times. "No, thank you, we just ate."

Castle nodded back at her and made quick work of his vest, grabbing the one that Kate was holding out to him as he made his way over to the closet.

"Okay, well you kids have fun. We'll be back in time for me to start dinner for tonight." He called as he followed Kate out into the hall.

Alexis turned to Ashley as the door click shut behind them, leaving the two teenagers alone in the dark apartment, the lamp still lying in pieces on the floor. Her brow was furrowed as she opened her mouth to say something, but found that words failed her as Ashley nodded back.

"Well," he started. "That's not what I expected."

Alexis shook her head and made her way into the apartment, flipping on a light switch as she went.


	2. Storm Warning

2. Storm Warning (takes place during chapter 10)

Kate paused as she wandered out of the kitchen with a glass of water in one hand and her Kindle in the other. Her parents were out to dinner, some event for the office, which Kate had willingly begged out of. So, she found herself alone, in the dark apartment staring at the shelf of glossy hardbacks staring up at her. Her eyes swiveled to glance around the quiet room as she pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth and rocked slightly on the balls of her feet, bouncing up and down a couple of times before taking a hesitant step forward.

No one was home.

No one had to know.

She took another step forward and paused again, glancing down at the electronic stack of books in her hand. She rolled her foot around in circle, letting it dance on the floor as she stood in place, her nervous energy making its way out through her big toe. She pursed her lips, her nose crinkling as her internal battle raged. Her mind wandered to the books on economic theory, which were still in the plastic bag beside her bed. She had more options, better options, more academically acceptable options. She let out a huff and took the last few purposeful steps to the shelf, pulling a random volume out and stalked back towards her room with it resting in the crook of her arm.

Her fingers traced over the cover of _Storm Warning_ letting them run over the ridges of letters on the cover, bold colors shining back at her. Black, red, blue, green. Hard colors: manly. A small smile flittered over her lips as she traced the smaller letters reading _Richard Castle_.

* * *

Johanna Beckett shook her head as she peaked in the door to her daughter's room. Some things never changed, Kate's penchant for falling asleep while reading seemed to be one of them. She stepped quietly into the room, reaching out to pick the book up off of Kate's stomach, where it was lying wide open. Flipping it shut, she glanced down at the cover. Her eyes widened in surprise. Then she sighed at herself, as she stared down at the Derrick Storm novel. But she shouldn't be surprised, should she? Katie was… Katie was changing.

She could tease her daughter about her less than highbrow choice of reading material later, in a few days, when things had settled. Now, there were more important things to deal with. Her hand floated up to brush a couple stray strands of hair off of her daughter's forehead and Kate snuffled slightly in her sleep, sighing contently, her face burrowing into the pillow, as Johanna pulled her hand back.

Placing the book on the bedside table, she slowly reached down and grasped the blanket from the foot of the bed, dragging it up over her daughter's body. Kate grasped the edge of the blanket automatically and rolled onto her side. The hand clutching the blanket curled at her chin. Her lips parted slightly as she let out a contented sigh.

Johanna continued to stare at her for another moment. She had raised a strong daughter, a good daughter. God help her, she had been lost at moments, between the boys and the motorcycle, the tattoo and the fights she had been sure she had lost her child more than once. But she was still here, crawling into her mother's bed in the middle of the night for advice, crying on her shoulder and laughing with her over a bottle of wine.

In that moment, staring down at her daughter: her scared, confused, lost, strong, smart daughter she couldn't help but think that she was the luckiest mother in the world because somehow, between it all, with two work-a-holic parents, Katie had still managed to turn out okay.

She flipped off the lamp and leaned down, placing a gentle kiss on Kate's forehead before pulling back, running her hand through her daughter's long brown hair.

"I love you, Katie," she whispered.

Kate's lips curled up in her sleep, as she hummed into the pillow.

"I love you too, Rick."

Johanna sighed, her eyes falling closed as she pressed her lips together and pulled her hand back from her daughter's head, making her way out of the dark room, pulling the door shut quietly behind her. She leaned back against the wall in the hallway, staring at the white ceiling, rolling her eyes heavenward to pray that her daughter would figure out what she wanted. Who she wanted and that it would be the right decision.

She prayed that not too many people would get hurt in the process.


	3. Challenge Accepted

3. Challenge Accepted. (post-epilogue)

Kate's eyes drifted up from the dedication page of _Stalemate_ as a shadow fell over her. She could feel his presence wrapping around her like a blanket, and a soft smile settled onto her lips as she tilted her head back so she could peer up at him. Her fingers curled over his words printed in her book. Only hers. For her to see, to read. No one else. Her dedication, her autograph, her proposal.

"Hi," she greeted softly.

"Hey," he answered in kind.

He rocked back on his heels for a second, his hands shoved in his pockets as he looked down at her sprawled out on the floor in between the stacks.

"So…?" His unasked question dying on his lips as his drifted down to look at the words printed under Kate's hand.

"So?" Kate repeated back, her lips quirked, eyebrow raised as she stared up at him, feigning ignorance at his partially asked question.

"Did… did you read it?" Castle stuttered quietly.

"Did I read what?"

"You know, the inscription?"

"Well," Kate started, her lips quirked. She was going to make him work for it, to make him ask. It was only proper after all, and since the rest of their relationship had been far from proper, they should have to start somewhere. "I saw that you had scribbled something here, but it was hard to make out what it said…"

"Hard to make out?" Castle squeaked, squatting down to pull Kate's hand away from the page. It was printed perfectly, neatly. A farsighted child would be able to read that writing. How could she not…

He gripped her wrist gently as he pulled it away from the page, watching as her fingers curled up into a loose fist as he held it up in the air. His gaze dropped to the words before his eyes cut back up to her smiling once. A soft grin greeting him. "You…"

His gaze dropped back down to the page, the scrawled words in black with a simple three letter reply written in red ink underneath them.

_Ask._

"Ask me," she whispered as he stared at the word.

His eyes locked with hers and the rest of the world fell away, the bookstore staff manning the counter and wandering the stacks. The sound of the espresso machine steaming in the coffee shop, excited fans twittering about his inscriptions as they hung around the door for one last glimpse as he made his way back out into the world. It was only the two of them, back where they first met; where it had all began with a series of bad pick-up lines and below-the-belt insults. A chase full of banter, tears, laughter, looks and words, spoken and otherwise. A story, a fractured fairy tale; which deserved a happy ending.

He reached into his pocket and she sat up straighter, crossing her legs in front of her as she placed the book on the ground beside her, her lips drawn between her teeth, her eyes never leaving his.

"Katherine Beckett," he started, his voice a rumble, which mixed with the pounding of her heart, making her chest vibrate. "Will you marry me?"

"Yes."

The word were barely a whisper caught in her throat coming out as more of a sob as her chin crumbled and she sniffed in a breath, blaming the sudden tears on jet lag, justifying her state in her head.

"Yes?" His eyes widened as if he had expected her to laugh in his face and run as far and as fast as possible. Instead she reached out with both of her hands to cup his face and bring his lips to meet hers as she murmured the three-letter word against him over and over.

"It was always yes," she whispered, swiping a thumb along his cheekbone as she pulled away to look him in the eye. "All I want is you."

"You have me, forever."

"For always."

He nodded as he grasped her left hand in his, holding it steady as he pried the ring out of the box with one hand, fumbling slightly causing her to laugh.

"No laughing," he chided as he slid the three stone ring onto her forth finger. "This is serious business."

She reached up for his face once the ring was on her finger bringing him in for another kiss as a light flashed, blinding them both.

Kate pulled back tilting her head down so that there foreheads were pressed together. She let out a pained moan as Castle chuckled in her ear. They had managed to keep their public appearances to a minimum since New Orleans.

"And so it begins…"

"So, Mrs. Castle," Castle murmured. "You ready to meet the press?"

"As ready as I will ever be," Kate replied as Castle stood up and reached down to take her by the hands, hoisting her up off the ground, with a little more force than necessary causing her to stumble into him, her front was pressed into his.

Another light flashed.

"You did that on purpose."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Love you."

He took her hand in his as she reached back down to swipe her book off of the ground. She couldn't forget that.

"Love you too, but you still did that on purpose."

"Prove it," he challenged as they stepped out of the aisle and into the milling crowd of fans and scattered reporters, both of them nodding and flashing the occasional smile.

Kate glanced up at him as she reached up with the hand gripping the book to swipe at a strand of hair that had gotten stuck to her lips. She didn't have to fake the smile that crossed her face as they made their way towards the exit.

_Challenge accepted. _


End file.
